Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-08
The Functions OF Government Exemplitied
in the New Regime at Niagara.

titled. Insistence upon strict logical
uniformity and consistency of action
with a certain theory of conduct is not
wise, because the theory is necessarily
based upon imperfect knowledge. Mil
points out that the English rac has
practically achieved most for liberty
because 1t is not politically logical. 1t
repairs in the light of experience, rath-
er than remakes in accordance with Il
dogma. Jefferson's..apothegm that it
is the best government which governs
least is sound, but it must be tempered
with Bacon's occasional excess; that is,
occasional departure from the general
rule.
The demand for practical politicians
rather than doctrinaires, and the inn
patience with those who are called
v%isionaries in politics, arises from the
always made, that to see n remote star
you must look IA little on one side of ii,
and that there are laws of disorder 1t
is certain that the best governments
are full of Inconsistencies, and con-
sequently that a public project is not to
be condemned summarily because it
is not in accord with a good general
theory. In this country the general
principle following Jefferson's apo
thegm is that the government should
cor iine itself to protecting individual
liberty of action, assuming that such
freedom will accomplish AL that is es-
scntial for public progress and devel-
opmert, without complaint hat any
class or interest is more favored than
others.
But this principle is disregarded in
two of the most vitality important in
stitutions OF the country-the post-of-
flee ard the common school. There is
no doubt that individual enterprise
would carry the mails and provide
schools. But the government, gong
beyond the protection of individual
liberty. and beyond taxation limited to
the amount of the necessary expenses
of government in discharging that du-
ty, manages in the nation the pSst-of-
flee, and in the States the schools. The
practical reason and justification are
that these are both great public con
veniences of a kind which in our situa-
ton makes it better for the general
welfare that they should be a puolic
rarier than a private care. Here Is q
wise excess, a useful departure from
the rigidity of exact consistency.
This is a strain of reflection of which
many q ~loiterer at Niagara this sum-
mel vas perhaps conscious as he con-
trasted the present freedom of that
grand spectacle with lis recent peril
from destroy ing distractions. Yet the
emancipation of the great cataract has
been secured, as many of the MODEST
medieval buildings were erected, by a
distinct violation of the letter OF the
J%effersonian apothegm. The ghost OF
Jefferson might well ask: Ii the pub.
lie is to be taxed for a pleasure ground,
why moi for sanitary eXcursionsP II
the government is to undertake &c
carry letters and parcels, why not pas
sengersp If the state should maintain
schools, why not support colleges and
museumsP
But Bacon says that while occasional
excess is good, the wise rule is tenn
perance. The strength Of states is the
se~lf-respecting and sclf-sustaining citi
zen, and the excess must always siol
short of injury TO those qualities. The
state is composed of citizens, and what
ever they decide, upon mature refiec
ton. to be best for the general welfare
they may properly decide to do, since
they must do it at their own cost. Pub
lie spirit is the spirit in a communit,
which considers the benefit Of thu
whole as well as the advantage OF thu
individual. and which willingly help
TO secure that general benefit if it cal
be secured without injury to the large
benefit of the whole. which consists il
developing and maintaining individual
self-reliance.
The purchase by the state of tn
grounds surrounding Niagara Falls TO
the purpose Of removing obstruction
dUu seCuIIuS iclS'Si thO
grandeur of the spectacle, is one OF tn
most striking recent Illustrations o
true public spirit. 1t cannot be urge,
that a pecuniary reveuue would be re
turned to the state from the purchase
nor that it would not be an annual OK
pense properly to maintain the grounds
The argument was that it was an un
PARALLEL scene of natural submit,
within the domain of the state, that ii
unobstructed contemplation was a hig
moral benefit TO the community, an
that the consciousness of its neglec
and of its practical destruction as
natural spectacle would be morally IL
: furious to the people. 1t was an argr
ment quite beyond the usual range c
arguments for an appropriation {
public money. But il IS honorable {
the state that the force of the argt
ment was appreciated and the graz
was made.
The third annual report OF the con
m~issioners announces tina: all leg;
( proceedings connected with the Al
{ anisitlon of the reservation are final
closed, and that they now have unGi
turbed control of the entire territor'
The total receipts from sales from Il
inclined railway. leases. ETC.. durin
! tho three wears since the OrpaniZatiC